January 26, 2021

Tuesday

After classes on Monday, I found out that I would only have one of my usual classes on Tuesday. The later two groups would be gone skiing. Instead, I would be working with two entirely new classes during my last two hours of the day.

My first class behaved pretty well. We did a lesson called “Civil Rights in Media.” I started with a brief review of everything we discussed in the Civil Rights lesson from the week before. Then, we moved onto a discussion of each different period through different movies. It went pretty well. It took some work to explain the clips to them because their oral comprehension isn’t amazing, but we got through it together.

The next group was a new 6ème class. I did my “Introduction” presentation with them. They got to ask a ton of questions about the US and were really curious about Michigan. It was fun to answer their questions. A lot of them said “thank you” after class, which I appreciated.

The third class was a 3ème group with a pretty low level. The teacher told me to refuse to speak in French to them, which made my lesson a lot more difficult. They refused to raise hands and would shout of their every thought or reaction to something I shared. This group was shocked to learn about the history of the KKK. They did not know that white supremacist organizations existed in the US.

I was happy to go home for the day. I got a ride back to Anthon with another neighbor and her son. She was really nice. She wanted to know a lot about the US election and the atmosphere back home. She asked if I knew any Tr•mp supporters and commented that she was aware that a lot of families were divided by the election. I felt a bit uncomfortable admitting that I did know some of his supporters and that my family was one that experienced a rift after the election. My neighbor was happy that Biden finally entered the White House and seemed pretty thrilled with his level of competency. The French are generally overjoyed with the Biden presidency. They’re glad that we’ve rejoined the Paris accord and seem to be taking COVID more seriously. There’s a pervasive attitude that the US has been missing on the global stage for some time now and they’re happy to see us return.

The day really tired me out. I struggled to concentrate throughout the evening and ended up just napping. I’ve been getting really poor sleep since I arrived. Mattresses here really are not as comfortable as any I’ve slept on back home. Hell, the fold out couch in a lot of hotels would feel better than the bed in my apartment.

I started to plan a weekend trip to Avignon with another assistant. It was a pretty good deal and I really want to see at least one new thing before we experience a third lockdown here. It seems like the announcement is looming over us like a heavy raincloud. Everyone knows it is coming, but we don’t know when or exactly how intense it’s going to be.

I got to have a call with some of my friends in the evening before I headed to bed which greatly improved my day.